Episode #567 - Rocket Science vs Business Rates - Scaling Lessons from Both Worlds
Release Date: 01/30/2026
Episode #588 - ScaleUp Club - Focus, AI Multipliers and The Checklist Advantage with Victor Carpio
ScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others’ experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today’s episode we are doing something slightly different. This episode was recorded live during one of our ScaleUp Club sessions, where we bring together founders and leadership teams to explore the real challenges of scaling a business. The session included our regular AI Pulse update, a live Q&A...
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Episode #587 - ScaleUp Shorts - Scaling isn't about choosing between numbers or people
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt dive into two seemingly contrasting, but ultimately aligned, scaling philosophies from recent guests Jeremy Middleton and John Hibbs. On the surface, one is a data-driven investor focused on predictable growth and cash flow. The other is a people-first founder measuring culture, wellbeing, and connection. But the real insight? 👉 You cannot scale what you do not measure. This episode unpacks why both financial discipline and people metrics are essential if you want to build a resilient, scalable business. What...
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Episode #586 - From University Dismissal To A Realisation That You Need To Measure What Matters For Success
ScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by John Hibbs, founder of Coefficient, a platform designed to help leaders measure the human side of their business — things like culture, psychological safety and engagement. In this conversation John explains why so many businesses track revenue and profit but struggle to...
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Episode #585 - From Near Failure to FTSE 100: The Power of Predictable Revenue - with Jeremy Middleton
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Jeremy Middleton. Jeremy is best known as one of the early backers of HomeServe, a business that grew from a struggling plumbing service into a FTSE-100 company before its eventual acquisition. Today he leads Middleton Enterprises, investing in profitable founder-led businesses and helping them scale from around £500k profit to £5m and beyond. This episode explores the real lessons behind scaling successfully: pivoting business models, building predictable revenue, hiring the right people and...
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Episode #584 - ScaleUp Radio Short - Strategy Over Hope: What Three Founders Teach Us About Scaling Smarter
ScaleUp Radio
In this special ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt distil some of the most powerful insights from three recent interviews with founders working at the cutting edge of marketing, AI, and business growth. Featuring lessons from Andreas Voniatis, Benjie Hughes, and Serge Nguele, the discussion explores what really drives successful scaleups and where many businesses go wrong when trying to grow. While each founder operates in a different space, a common theme runs through all three conversations: clarity of strategy beats blind activity every time. From diagnosing...
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Episode #583 - Digital Diagnosis Before Ad Spend – with Serge Nguele
ScaleUp Radio
What happens when a former medical student applies diagnostic thinking to marketing? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Serge Nguile, founder of Your PPC Doctor, a PPC and digital strategy agency built around one powerful idea: diagnose before you prescribe. Serge shares his fascinating journey from medical studies in Ukraine to becoming a PPC Director, and ultimately launching his own agency after redundancy. He also opens up about founder burnout, mindset shifts, and why purpose now sits at the heart of his business model. As always, our discussion is structured in...
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Episode #582 - AI Search Is Rewriting the Rules. Are You Still Playing the Old Game? - with Andreas Voniatis
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent sits down with Andreas Voniatis, founder of Artios.io, to explore what might be the biggest shift in search since Google began. Traditional SEO as we know it is fading. AI search is changing how content is discovered, prioritised, and rewarded. And Andreas saw it coming early. In fact, Artios built its own Large Language Model back in 2019; years before ChatGPT entered the mainstream. This conversation dives into: Why traditional SEO is becoming a back-office function Why most AI content strategies are fundamentally flawed What “information...
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Episode #581 - ScaleUp Club: Take Control of Your Week - with Ryan Slaney
ScaleUp Radio
This ScaleUp Radio episode is a ScaleUp Club special — recorded live in February — and it’s packed with practical ideas you can apply immediately. Kevin Brent opens with the month’s theme: gaining control of your week, moving away from reactive firefighting and towards deliberate, high-value leadership time. You’ll hear a simple framework to help you protect the work that really moves the business forward, rather than letting your diary become “a democracy”. Then we switch gears into a short AI Pulse update from Paul Rhodes, founder of Green Gorilla Software, who shares a...
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Episode #580 - Scaling a Personal Brand Without Becoming the Bottleneck
- with Benjie Hughes
ScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by Benjie Hughes, founder of Hopeless Marketing. Benjie works with B2B service businesses turning over between one and thirty million pounds who feel stuck, plateaued or unclear about their positioning. His philosophy is simple but powerful; hope is not a strategy. Most businesses...
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Episode #579 - ScaleUp Short: Scaling Does Not Need To Be Complicated
ScaleUp Radio
Welcome back to ScaleUp Radio Shorts, where Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt distil the best insights from our recent full-length interviews and turn them into practical, actionable takeaways for ambitious business owners. This week, we’re bringing together two very different voices with a surprisingly aligned message: Jack Molyneux – former Merchant Navy Master Mariner turned tech founder, building a disruptive superyacht platform, IDOSY. Lindsey Burden – Intuitive Business Coach with over a decade of experience helping founders stop overcomplicating and start executing. Different...
info_outlineIn this special edition of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Granger Forson dive into two recent interviews that couldn’t be more different on the surface; but reveal some remarkably similar lessons underneath.
On one side, we have Aqeel Shamsul, founder of cutting-edge space biotech startup Frontier Space, turning microgravity into a drug development advantage.
On the other, Tom Perry and Ella Chapman from Holloway Bond, redefining the approach to business rates recovery through data-led outreach and customer-first practices.
From rocket science to rateable values, this episode is a compelling breakdown of the shared truths behind successful scaleups.
💡 Key Highlights:
✅ Solve a Real Problem, Build the Right Team
Whether in outer space or in high-street offices, the guests focused on one key thing: identifying a genuine pain point and assembling the right people to solve it.
✅ From Hustle to Systems
Aqeel bootstrapped his first space mission while washing dishes during his PhD. Tom & Ella took on every business function until they hit bottlenecks—then learned to outsource and scale smart.
✅ Proactive Sales Is King
Frontier Space invests heavily in Business Development, even in deep-tech. Holloway Bond flips the model by finding clients through data, rather than waiting for them to call.
✅ Culture and Hiring Matter More Than Ever
In both businesses, early hires define the culture. Whether it’s recruiting for attitude in a niche field or insisting on in-person interviews to gauge culture fit—getting the right people on board is non-negotiable.
✅ Stay Focused on Your Core
Tom & Ella are weighing up diversification. Granger’s advice? “Stick to the knitting” until systems and leadership layers are strong enough to expand.
🚀 Standout Message:
“Whether you’re dealing with the European Space Agency or your local council’s valuation office, business always comes down to: Do you solve a real problem? Do you have a team that can deliver? And can you sell it?”
🔑 The One Key Thing:
Proactive, focused execution; not the industry you’re in; is what drives scale.
🎁 Quick heads-up…
We’re looking for a handful of founders to test our new AI-powered Smart90 Lite app.
It’s built to help you stay accountable and actually deliver on your goals; in just a few minutes a day.
It’s free while we’re in testing, and your feedback will help shape the final version.
📩 Just email kevin@smart90.co.uk to get access.
This episode has been created utilising AI technology